Far from the Land of Demons, deep inside a hidden underground chamber wrapped in damp darkness, the only sound was the slow drip of water echoing from the stone ceiling.
Kakashi Hatake lay unconscious on the cold ground.
His body was motionless, his breathing faint but steady, as if he had merely fallen into a deep sleep.
Not far from him, three figures stood in silence.
Madara Uchiha.
Black Zetsu.
White Zetsu.
The dim light from the chamber walls cast long shadows over them, making the entire place feel even colder.
Madara stood with his back half-turned, one eye lowered toward Kakashi's still form.
After a brief silence, he finally spoke. His voice was low and deep, giving nothing away.
"Did Shiki notice?"
Black Zetsu tilted his head, then let out a strange snicker.
"Notice?" he repeated, sounding amused. "Maybe by now."
White Zetsu immediately leaned forward, peeking toward him with a grin that looked far too cheerful for a place like this.
"If you're asking whether he noticed right away…" White Zetsu tilted his head and laughed. "Probably not. He was too busy hovering around Rin and that priestess like some overprotective mother hen."
The moment those words fell, a faint chuckle escaped Madara's lips.
"Of course," Madara said softly.
His gaze lowered toward Kakashi again.
"For someone like him, protecting what's in front of him will always come first."
White Zetsu grinned widely.
"Exactly. Eyes on the girl, eyes off the boy. Rookie mistake."
Black Zetsu added in a flat tone, "Even if he realized it afterward, it would already be too late."
Madara said nothing more.
He simply turned fully toward Kakashi and began walking forward, until he stopped beside Kakashi's unconscious body.
The eyes Madara currently possessed were no longer ordinary eyes.
They were the Rinnegan.
The ripple-patterned purple eyes stared down at Kakashi without the slightest fluctuation.
Then Madara raised one hand.
From his palm, a black receiver slowly extended outward.
It was long, thick, and black, with the kind of shape that left no doubt about its purpose—to penetrate.
White Zetsu's smile widened.
"Oho... here it comes."
Black Zetsu remained silent, watching closely.
Madara, with a precise motion, drove the black receiver into Kakashi's body.
The moment it embedded itself into him, Kakashi's body twitched faintly even in unconsciousness.
Then Madara's fingers moved, making one hand sign after another with blurring hands.
The Rinnegan in his eyes seemed to deepen in color as chakra spread through the underground chamber.
A moment later, black markings began to appear around the spot where the receiver had been embedded.
They spread like ink over water, crawling across Kakashi's skin in strange, ominous patterns.
For a few seconds, the markings pulsed with a faint glow before they began to sink inward.
Bit by bit, the markings were absorbed into Kakashi's skin until nothing remained on the surface at all.
White Zetsu crouched slightly, peering at Kakashi with interest.
"Will this really work?"
Madara withdrew his hand calmly.
"For the perception Shiki showed, I have my own judgments. If it's as I guessed, then it should."
"Even if Shiki senses something unusual later, by then the move will already have been made."
Madara looked down at Kakashi for a few seconds longer before turning away.
This plan had not been something he could have attempted under ordinary circumstances.
To prepare for Shiki, Madara had reclaimed the Rinnegan.
And with the power of those eyes, he had forcefully created a new opening.
As for Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan—
Madara had no interest in discarding them yet.
They were still useful to him in the long run.
So instead, he had trapped them in Genjutsu.
Nagato, in particular, had been affected the most.
By the time the illusion was lifted, his body had already begun to show signs of severe weakness. To the outside world, it would simply appear that he had suddenly fallen ill.
For a while, he would no longer be able to carry out ninja activities.
That left Yahiko and Konan to continue managing the Akatsuki.
Fortunately, before Yahiko's death in the original course of events, Nagato had never possessed much direct presence within the organization to begin with. Because of that, the transition caused no real disruption.
On the surface, everything still looked normal, and that was exactly what Madara wanted. The Akatsuki would keep moving, the world would keep turning, and beneath it all, his plan would unfold unseen—one made specifically for Shiki.
Madara stopped near the mouth of the cavern and looked ahead into the darkness.
For the first time in a long while, there was the faintest trace of anticipation in his expression.
"Shiki..."
"A direct confrontation would be inefficient. So I had to create the right conditions first. War never cares about being just, I hope you understand that."
Madara closed his eyes, then waved his hand. The watching White Zetsu and Black Zetsu instantly understood it was time for Master Madara to go to the toilet, so they went over to support him.
—
The trip back to Konoha should have been fast.
For Shiki, it was.
But for everyone standing on the floating slab of earth as it tore through the sky like a meteor, it felt like being carried by a natural disaster.
The wind screamed past them.
Below, forests, rivers, and mountain ranges vanished one after another in the blink of an eye.
Even Kushina, who had started out excited, was now crouched slightly, both hands gripping the edge of the platform.
"…Oi," she said through clenched teeth, red hair whipping wildly behind her. "You couldn't have made this a little slower?!"
Shiki stood at the very front, unmoving.
"No."
Kushina's eye twitched. Although she knew it was the best course of action and actually supported it, this guy... was always annoying her.
"Tch."
Behind them, Rin still looked worried, and every now and then, she would glance toward Shiki's back as if trying to force herself to stay calm just by looking at him.
Kurenai remained beside her the whole time.
One of her hands stayed lightly on Rin's shoulder. As someone who also had someone dear to her, she could understand what Rin must've been feeling right now.
After a while, the gates of Konoha appeared in the distance.
The floating platform didn't slow down until the village walls were already directly ahead.
Then, with a small motion of Shiki's finger, the massive slab descended rapidly and landed just outside the village with a heavy boom that kicked up dust and nearly made the guards on duty jump out of their skin.
"What the—?!"
"Enemy attack?!"
Several shinobi instantly appeared on the walls, kunai already in hand.
They waited in urgency, ready to strike at the approaching enemies, until they saw who was standing there.
"…Shiki-sama?"
Shiki stepped down first.
"Open the gate."
No one wasted time asking questions.
Someone like Shiki didn't need to explain anything he was doing, and the shinobi of Konoha were long used to his style of acting.
The gates opened at once.
As they entered Konoha, a few villagers looked over curiously, but one glance at Rin's tear-stained face, Kushina's grim expression, and Shiki's cold silence was enough to make most of them back off.
Then, when they reached the Hokage's office, Shiki turned to Kurenai and said calmly, "Kurenai, I'll leave the explaining of the matter to you guys... tell Tsunade to be careful."
"I will, Shiki-nii. Don't worry." Kurenai nodded gently, not saying more. She knew Shiki-nii very well. At a time like this, instead of saying anything, she should just support him silently.
Rin turned toward him again, her hands clutched at the corners of her clothes.
"Shiki-sama…"
He felt a strange sense of déjà vu, like Sakura pleading with Naruto about Sasuke.
Shiki looked at her and, though he couldn't help thinking a bit rudely, still spoke words of comfort.
"You'll hear from me soon."
The next moment, the space where he had been was empty. Now that he no longer had anyone to carry, Shiki used the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi directly on his own body and, with his speed, instantly left the place before anyone could react.
Kushina stared at the spot for a moment before muttering under her breath, "Those bastards really picked the worst person possible to piss off."
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